[smilesnd]

I don't consider it commercial linux because they are not competing with other options. The companies that do build these supercomputers have to provide technical support because nothing out there exist for it. Just a different view of what commercial linux is vs building hardware specific software.

[KaiserPro]

Its very much commercial linux, because you are paying for a service, that's linux based.

Sure with how cheap inifiband is (especially compared to 40/100 gig ethernet) one _could_ cobble together a system your self.

Where the magic sauce comes in, and where the like of cray really make things shine is the software they provide to allow end users _easily_ do multi-machine scaling.

libraries for just in time delivery of data directly into ram? yup. location aware job dispatchers that co-locate jobs near each other logically? yup.

All of those hard things are solved for you.

[smilesnd]

Redhat is a commercial linux because they are competing with other os/distro in this market. If I pay Joe $5 a month to keep my ubuntu up to date it doesn't make ubuntu a commercial linux even though I am paying for a linux service. These companies building supercomputers are competing in producing supercomputers. Not in providing a linux disto and providing a service for said linux. I very much doubt I could get access to their linux disto and linux service without first purchasing a supercomputer from them.

[nl]

This is pretty much exactly how every HPC OS has been sold since the Cray X-MP. It's like if you buy Isilon - it is a software, hardware and support you buy. No one argues that isn't commercial.